I know this is a big statement to make, but I think it has to be made (and clearly): every time Trump and Pence hold an event in which people are closely packed and not wearing masks, it is spitting on the bodies of nearly a quarter of a million dead Americans—and their families.
There's no making sense of the tragedy of 250,000 Americans dead from COVID-19, but one thing we *can* say is that these deaths underscore how dangerous the virus is and how seriously we must take it. When the President and Vice President won't do so, they dishonor American dead.
The message the President and Vice President sent tonight—and that the president's top economic advisor sent explicitly earlier today—is that the virus doesn't exist except as a historical matter. Never before has an administration so disrespected America's sick, dying, and dead.
Imagine being a frontline healthcare worker or first responder or public school teacher or family member of someone who's died of the virus or is currently sick from the virus and watching the spectacular display Trump and Pence made today of falsely implying the virus is *gone*.
The broader message from the RNC is that Trump takes no responsibility whatsoever for anything that's happening in America right now—indeed he acts as though the future he claims he can bring will only occur if you vote for him. It's like extortion by...your *current government*.
If Trump had no plan on police brutality except to encourage it, and no plan for racial justice except to scorn it, and no plan to deal with racism except to stoke it, and no plan for the pandemic except to ignore it, any public safety issues arising from any of that is on *him*.
The remarkable message from Trump's national convention is that *Trump's America* sucks but he will fix it the next time around he promises
